Quote:
Originally Posted by Jerry
This should help you out. Jan Gehl
Events in the College of Arts & Science
Jan Gehl in Saskatoon: Liveable, Sustainable Cities Symposium
August 31, 2009 to September 1, 2009
Jan Gehl in Saskatoon: Healthy, Liveable, Sustainable Cities Symposium, sponsored in part by the Regional and Urban Planning Program (RUP), will take place on August 31–September 1, 2009. The symposium features the following two lectures by the renowned Danish architect and urban design consultant Jan Gehl, both of which are open to the public:
Presentation Part I: Monday, August 31 at 7:30,
Presentation Part II: Tuesday, September 1 at 7:30
Frank & Ellen Remai Arts Centre, 100 Spadina Crescent East, Saskatoon
Tickets: www.picatic.com
per presentation: Students $7, Public $12
package for both presentations: Students $12, Public $22
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I ended up getting a ticket from a friend.
Really nice presentation and Jan has a great sense of humour.
It did drag on a bit though by the end when he kept trying to reinforce his point on why bicycles should be the main transportation in cities.
A couple quick points and ideas:
He started out noting he finished school in the 60's, what he calls the worst period of architecture design ever. Focused on bold models where it looks nice from a plane but no studies ever went into how people interact with these new highrises and landmarks. (He likes to call Dubai, a city of Giant Perfume Bottles)
Our current obsession about the car, cities are built around the car and not people. Cars are made more and more visible (driving, parking) and people more and more INvisible.
Every city has a Traffic board and planning committee with ample data and statistics on everything regarding cars and traffic. Until recently nearly NO city had any data on pedestrians and people traffic with in cities!
Data is key to pushing the necessity of more people places.
A great public space is defined by history as being:
1) gathering space (socialize)
2) market place (trade goods/ services)
3) connecting link (to other parts of the city)
Ex. Venice streets and spaces still function with all 3
Most current North American Cities only focus on the 3rd function.
Questions did arise later (which everyone was thinking) about how to convince a population obsessed with the car to switch to public transit or bicycle when it is -40 below. (He had an example of Dane's using their bikes still in their winter but it doesn't get as cold there)
He pushed to still focus on the good days and that Saskatoon still has many more good days than Danemark, even though it gets colder here.
An interesting point he had was his confusion over why Calgary and Montreal are building subways to be rid of a couple bad months when they are losing all the good days as well hiding underground. He likes bikes!
It was great to see a fullhouse last night and should be another good talk tonight. It still is a bit of a utopia but at least the ideas are out there and we are starting to build our architecture around people now.